Consume Me Like a Fire

“Murderers, in general, are people who are consistent, people who are obsessed with one idea and nothing else” –Ugo Betti

Shiloh glanced down at her watch before she picked up her pace and started running across campus. She lunch date with her roommate ran late and she had a report due in her afternoon class. The last thing she needed was to be locked out and end up getting a zero on her paper. Being an active runner had its benefits because she only had 2 more minutes so she had to sprint.

As she rounded the corner, she ran smack dab into someone else and almost flew backwards, but that someone else was fast enough to keep their balance and grab her to make sure she kept hers too. Shiloh looked up embarrassed and met the face of a very attractive black guy. She quickly noticed the hand gun attached to his hip and straightened herself out.

“I'm so sorry. I'm late for a class and my report is due…” she mumbled pathetically. Looking back down at her clock, she saw it was past 2 and the doors to her class were now locked. She groaned and took a deep breath catching her breath.

“Doesn’t matter anymore though,” she added. The man raised an eyebrow and smiled.

“I’m Special Agent Derek Morgan with the FBI,” he said holding his hand out. Shiloh’s eyes almost bugged out and she slowly took his hand to shake it.

“Shiloh Montgomery… Can I ask why the FBI is here?”

“Actually, it’s good that you’re here. I need to ask some students around here a few questions. Do you know who Melissa Taylors is?” Derek asked. Shiloh winced when she thought about Melissa. They used to be best friends and roommates their freshman year in college. The two were practically attached at the hip, but Melissa began to change. She skipped classes and went out to drink, party, and get high. Shiloh didn’t want to get involved with those things and broke their friendship off. Melissa became a royal bitch to everyone and was known as the campus slut.

“Uh yeah. We were roommates 2 years ago, our freshman year. We were pretty close too, but we stopped being friends earlier this year. She has a bad reputation and I just want to focus on my studies. Why?” she asked crossing her arms relaxing.

“I’m sorry to say, but her body was found this morning. She was killed in her dorm around 5 o’clock this morning.” Shiloh stifled her gasp and covered her mouth feeling sick.

“Would you like to sit down?” Derek asked. Shiloh nodded and he led her over to a bench and the two sat down. The blonde haired girl brought her knees up and wrapped her arms around them feeling upset and uncomfortable.

“We were best friends… Were… she changed and she wasn’t the same Melissa anymore, but I still loved her like my friend even if we didn’t talk anymore,” Shiloh whispered feeling her eyes well up with unshed tears. Derek rested a hand on her shoulder.

“I don’t want to ask, but we need to know. Did Melissa have any enemies around here?” Shiloh wiped under her eyes and gave a quiet snort.

“Almost every girl hated her. She was known as the campus slut because she stole boyfriends and slept around with taken guys. Girls threatened her every day, but I never thought any of them were true… Wait why is the FBI here if only one person was killed? Shouldn’t the police be here?” Shiloh looked up at Derek with confusion.

“That’s the next part. Do you know Clare Jackson, or Olivia Ewing?”

“They are Melissa’s best friends now. The three are always together,” she answered feeling uneasy again. She had a gut feeling that something else bad happened to them.

“They were also killed sometime this morning. All we know is that it took place after Melissa’s death.”

“Are you kidding me?!” she practically screamed. Derek stood up and held his hand out.

“You should come with me to meet my team. You seem to know a lot about the girls and we need your help. We want to put this man or woman behind bars as fast as we can.” He said. Shiloh hesitated, but soon followed him into another part of the campus. The two walked into a conference room where FBI agents and a few police officers were. Pictures of the dead girls were tacked to a board and notes covered the surface.

“Hotch, I need you to meet somebody,” Derek called over the rush. A man who Shiloh presumed was Hotch walked over to them and eyed her up and down.

“This is Shiloh Montgomery. She was close with Melissa and knew the other girls. Shiloh, this is my boss, Aaron Hotchner,” Derek introduced them. Hotch held out his hand to the young girl and she slowly took it. He was intimidating to say the least, but what would you expect? He’s part of the FBI after all.

“What can you tell me about Melissa Taylors?” he asked nodding for her to sit down at the large table in the room.

“She and I started college because we wanted to study nursing. She was my roommate, but not too far into our freshman year, she started to party more and was kicked out of the nursing program because her grades fell too low. She and I were best friends until later this year because she went too crazy for me. She slept around and did drugs…” Shiloh recapped everything to him that she had told Derek, and he just listened intently, soaking in all the new information like a sponge.

“Is there anything else that happened recently? Probably earlier this week?” he asked.

“Uh…Well, there is a rumor going around that she slept with Jennie Way’s boyfriend and she and Jennie got into a fight because of it. But nothing other than that,” Shiloh replied, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. Hotch glanced over his shoulder at the working agents behind him.

“Reid, come here.” A man with shaggy brown hair walked over. He was wearing slightly wrinkled khaki pants, an oddly patterned button up and a sleeveless sweater vest on top that didn’t match the button up. Shiloh resisted the urge to raise an eyebrow at his outfit.

“Yeah Hotch?”

“I need you to find a Jennie Way so we can question her about Melissa.”

“Gotcha,” Reid turned to leave, but Hotch stopped him.

“One more thing. I want you to keep talking to Shiloh here. Morgan is going to go back onto the campus to talk to more students and I need to talk to the campus director with Rossi.” He left before Reid could object and walked over to talk to Rossi and Prentiss.

Reid and Shiloh looked at each other and an awkward silence washed over them. Finally Reid took a deep breath and sat down in the chair next to her.

“Listen, I know how hard it must be for you to have to go through something like this, but we need all the help we can get. If you hear or see anything suspicious going on come to us immediately,” Reid said never breaking their eye contact.

“Okay, Reid—“

“It’s Dr. Spencer Reid, but just call me Spencer or Agent Reid,” he stumbled a little, but sounded professional enough.

“Okay, Dr. Reid… But what do I do if the…killer attacks again? What if it’s someone else I know?” she asked quietly, squeezing her hands together. Spencer cleared his throat and finally looked away from the blonde girl in front of him.

“If we do our job correctly, there hopefully won’t be a next time,” he answered just a quietly. Shiloh glanced up at him and saw an awkward smile on his lips.

“Yeah hopefully… I should probably call Melissa’s parents… I was one of her only true friends for a while. This is just so much to take in,” she mumbled rubbing her temples.

“It’s been said that time heals all wounds. I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue, and the pain lessens, but it is never gone." Spencer said out of the blue. Shiloh raised an eyebrow and looked at him oddly.

“Was that supposed to make me feel better or something?” she asked. Spencer shook his head.

“No, but it’s the truth. Over time, the pain will lesson, but you’ll never forget who Melissa was.” Shiloh smiled a little more and stood up. Spencer followed her lead and soon they were face to face again.

“In your own way, you made me feel somewhat better. Thank you and if I hear anything, I’ll let you know. Bye Spencer,” Shiloh gave him a small wave before walking out of the room. Spencer wiggled his fingers a little not really knowing what to do. Once Shiloh was out of the room he let out a deep breath and relaxed. He heard a whistle behind him and turned to see JJ and Prentiss watching him with knowing smiles.

“Did Wonder boy just work that nerdy charm of his?” Emily asked JJ. The blonde woman winked at her and watched Spencer blush red before turning back to her work.

“Come on guys, we don’t have any time to waste. There’s a killer out there and is showing no signs of stopping any time soon…” Spencer picked up a few of the pictures of the dead girls and scanned them while looking for anything that popped out at him.

“This is obviously a hate crime. You can tell because of the way Melissa’s face was nearly indistinguishable while her body wasn’t as damaged,” he explained. Prentiss nodded and took the photo he was looking at.

“The most obvious suspect would be one of the girls she’s scorned by stealing their boyfriend,” she thought out loud. JJ watched them talk it out not really wanting to get involved. She was there to keep the peace and a leash on the media. She has never really liked to be involved with the problem solving and picture looking…

Spencer began to pace back in forth in front of the note board. A thousand thoughts were running through his head as he tried to decipher them all.

“Everything in the victims’ rooms was spotless. The only mess came from the body because of the way the unsub cut their hearts out. This suggests that he or she is either meticulous about cleanliness or is taking extreme cautions to not get caught. As for cutting the hearts out; if it’s a girl, she is simply doing to them what Melissa did to her when Melissa stole her boyfriend,” Reid mumbled, but he was loud enough for the girls to hear him.

“That makes sense, but why kill the others? Melissa was the one who hurt her. Why not just kill her?” Prentiss asked.

“That’s easy. In the unsub’s mind, everyone who was friends with Melissa is just like her.”